Texas Trash Pie

Our Texas Trash Pie Recipe is the ultimate sweet-and-salty mashup, packed with gooey caramel bits, salty pretzels, rich pecans, and melty chocolate chips. Perfect for holiday meals, potlucks, or dinner parties where you want to bring a dessert that guarantees a standing invitation.

One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, especially when that trash is loaded with chocolate, caramel, and zero regrets.

 

Texas Trash Pie was invented sometime in the 90s by Karen Royer of Royers Round Top Café (a tiny café in the tiny town of Round Top, Texas). The name “Trash Pie” comes from the idea of throwing “everything but the kitchen sink” into the mix, like salty pretzels, caramel bits, coconut, pecans, chocolate, and whatever else is lying around.

Thanks to road trips and online buzz, word of the gooey, crunchy, can’t-stop-eating-it pie spread far beyond Round Top. Texas Trash Pie became one of the reasons people made a pilgrimage to the café from far and wide. It’s become a beloved Southern favorite around the world, hitting that perfect sweet-salty-crunchy combo we all crave.

Made with simple ingredients, our Texas Trash Pie is full of ooey, gooey, chocolaty deliciousness.

And you don’t have to be a pro baker to nail this pie. It’s messy, it’s fun, and it has that kind of rustic that makes your mouth water.

If you’re an enlightened soul who knows you can’t have too much pie, you’ll want to check out our Sour Cream Raisin Pie for a slice of old-school comfort, and our show-stopping Oreo Pie Recipe that might vanish before you even grab a fork.

Ingredients for Texas Trash Pie

Let’s start by gathering the necessary ingredients to prepare our Texas Trash Pie recipe. Culinary professionals refer to this as mise en Place, which means “everything in its Place.”

Setting up your ingredients not only helps speed up the cooking process but also ensures you have all the necessary ingredients on hand to make the recipe.

How Can I Adjust the Ingredients?

Swapping ingredients isn’t just allowed; it’s what this Texas Pie was made for. The rule here is, if it tastes good and you like it, add it in.

We made the recipe with semisweet chocolate chips, but you can easily use dark chocolate chips, white chocolate chips, caramel chips, or butterscotch chips if you want to mix things up.

If you like a little extra sweetness, try tossing in mini marshmallows or chopped candy bars like Snickers, Milky Way, or even Reese’s Cups.

And for the pretzels, you can swap in salted pecans, salty graham cracker crumbs, or even crushed potato chips if you’re feeling adventurous.

How to Make a Texas Trash Pie

Follow along with my simple step-by-step instructions to learn how to make our Texas Trash Pie in your home kitchen.

• Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the oven rack on the second-to-lowest spot in your oven.
• Melt the butter. Set aside to cool.
• Break the pretzels and graham crackers into small pieces.

• Add the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt to the bowl of a food processor and pulse three times to combine.
• Add the very cold butter pieces to the flour mixture.
• Pulse at one-second intervals until the butter is mixed in.
• Add the egg to the mixture.
• Pulse until the dough forms a ball on the blade of the processor.
• Turn the dough out of the food processor onto a floured surface, and carefully remove the blade.
• Flatten the dough into a disc. Wrap it with plastic wrap and chill for 15-20 minutes.

• Roll out the pie crust on a lightly floured surface into a circle that is 2 to 3 inches wider than your pie dish.
• Carefully transfer the pie crust to a 9-inch deep dish pie plate. Trim and crimp the edges for a decorative finish.
• Add the chocolate chips, pretzels, graham crackers, coconut flakes, pecan pieces, caramel bits, melted butter, and sweetened condensed milk to a large bowl.
• Mix until well blended.
• Pour the pie filling into the prepared pie crust and smooth the top with a silicone spatula.
• Place the pan on the lower rack of the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes or until the pie is set and the top is golden brown.
  *Check the pie at the 30-minute mark; if it’s getting too dark, loosely cover the top with aluminum foil.

Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool for 15 – 20 minutes before cutting.

Serve your Texas Trash Pie warm with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream and watch as plates start filling faster than you can set them down.

After one blissful bite, you’ll wonder if the name “Trash Pie” was actually a genius decoy to guard the good stuff.

Once cooled, store Texas Trash Pie by tightly wrapping it in plastic wrap or placing it in an airtight container. It will keep at room temperature for up to 2 days or in the fridge for up to 5 days.

You can also freeze slices by wrapping them in plastic wrap and placing them in a freezer-safe bag or container. Frozen slices will last up to 2 months and should be thawed overnight in the fridge before serving.

To reheat, microwave a slice for 15–20 seconds until warm.

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